Venom 3 Cut Out Eel to Keep the Viral Horse in ‘Last Dance’

Ever since the “Venom: The Last Dance” trailer released, fans have been obsessed with the Venom-ized horse that Tom Hardy‘s Eddie Brock rides in the final movie of the Sony trilogy. But that’s not the only unfortunate animal that the symbiote possesses because there’s also a Venom fish and frog — and at one point there was more.

The script originally had Venom take over an electric eel, director Kelly Marcel revealed at the “Venom: The Last Dance” premiere in New York on Monday night, but the underwater animal was left on the cutting room floor.

“The sequence was getting too long. One of them had to go. The eel didn’t make it. The fish, frog and horse made it — and then something else,” she told Variety, while teasing that “there’s some more Venom-izing” in the movie.

The full scene from “Venom: The Last Dance” was played to attendees of Sony’s New York Comic Con panel on Friday night. It showed Hardy’s Eddie and his murderous symbiote pal being chased by soldiers in the desert. Eddie jumps into a roaring river to escape, while Venom, in his goo form, takes over a fish to swim away to safety. The Venom-ized fish turns black and gains razor-sharp teeth and a long, slobbery tongue, just like the main Venom. The small fish gulps down a bigger one to double in size, but then Venom “hops” over to an unsuspecting frog, which transforms into an amphibious symbiote. The Venom-ized eel would’ve been right at home in the scene, but sadly fans won’t be able to see it.

The third movie picks up directly after 2021’s “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” and Eddie and Venom are now fugitives on the run. They’re also being pursued by a xenophage, a giant monstrosity with woodchipper-like teeth sent by Venom’s creator Knull — a comic-book villain that’s the looming bad guy over “The Last Dance.”

Hardy and Marcel has previously said that this is the last “Venom” movie, but there are some teases at what could be in store for the future of the Spider-Man villain’s franchise. At New York Comic Con, Hardy said he still wants his Venom to battle Tom Holland’s Spidey in the MCU at some point, and Marcel said “there are lots of symbiote stories in the canon” that they could tell.

“I would love there to be another ‘Venom’ movie that involves another character,” Marcel told Variety at the premiere. “Maybe there are even some Easter eggs in this movie about what that could be.”

And make sure to stay after the credits, because Marcel said that, like the two previous “Venom” movies, there are scenes that set up future storylines.

“We have a coda, as we always do,” she said. “But this is a clean wrapping up of the story.”